Thursday, November 1, 2012

Yay! Finally! I've actually been waiting for CTI to do some sort of sales presentation thing to introduce their series, since I've been reading about the ones already announced and a few of them do sound quite interesting.

Oh and finally got confirmation that Ha Yu joined CTI (I had him on my list earlier, but because there wasn't 'confirmed' info yet, I removed him). I was actually surprised to see that Paw Hee Ching joined as well -- ok, well, I guess 'surprised' isn't really the right word, since at this point, working for CTI is probably better than working for ATV given the fact that ATV is in bad shape and doesn't even film series anymore. What I mean is that when I first saw Felix's Weibo post (prior to the one with the picture of Ha Yu and Paw Hee Ching) where he posted a picture of a script for his next CTI series with the description that a 'drama king' and 'movie queen' will be starring in the series, I immediately thought that the 'drama king' was referring to Felix -- so I was trying to figure out which 'movie queen' he was referring to (the few that I came up with were appropriate 'matches' with Felix in terms of acting and such)....but it turns out that the 'drama king' wasn't referring to him at all, which meant that the 'movie queen' was definitely not going to be the actresses I was thinking about. That's the 'surprise' piece that I was referring to.

In any case, I'm excited to watch the Sales Presentation because to be honest, I'm actually looking forward more to watching most of CTI's series that have already been announced (as well as the ones that haven't been announed yet, such as the Ha Yu series for example) than I am to watching any of TVB's upcoming series (the ones planned for next year don't sound appealing to me at all except for like 1 or 2 series).

Anyway, here's the latest article about CTI as well as some info I found on CTI's Weibo page....can't wait for more info to be announced on the 2013 series....

Even though CTI has not received their free-to-air TV license yet, that has not stopped the company’s leader Ricky Wong (王維基) from continuing to push forward his plans to build a TV empire.In his latest attempt at ‘knocking’ TVB, Ricky Wong finally persuaded TVB’s 2008 Best Actor (TV King) winner Ha Yu (夏雨) to join CTI -- in addition, the company will be holding its Sales Presentation event in December, which, as everyone knows, is the same month that rival TVB holds their Anniversary Awards ceremony.

HK’s current free-to-air TV stations – TVB and ATV – normally hold a Sale Presentation event everyyear in which they outline their plans for the coming year and introduce planned series / variety shows to their advertisers and business sponsors.Even though Ricky Wong’s CTI has not ‘officially’ opened its doors for business yet, he is already planning a ‘grand’ Sales Presentation event to take place on December 4th, during which practically all of the more than 100 artists who joined his company will attend as a means of support.

With 2 series in the works, former TVB siu sang Felix Wong (黃日華) continues to be one of CTI’s biggest advocates.In addition to attending practically every CTI event, Felix also recently revealed that 2 ‘heavyweights’ recently joined CTI.Earlier, Felix posted on his Weibo a picture of a man and a woman sitting on a bench with a cameraman and a crowd of onlookers in the background – along with the picture, Felix wrote:“The ‘drama king’ and ‘movie queen’ participating in CTI’s planned new series for next year歲月樓情 are the two of them…I will be playing the ‘drama king’s’ son!”Even though only the backsides of the 2 artists were visible in the picture, majority of netizens were able to recognize the ‘drama king’ as [former TVB TV King] Ha Yu and ‘movie queen’ as [one of ATV’s former main actresses + 2009 HKFA Best Actress winner] Paw Hee Ching (鲍起静).

Contacted via phone yesterday, Ha Yu confirmed that he will be attending the Sales Presentation event in December:“Yes, I will be going.This time, I will be collaborating with CTI on a ‘per series’ contract basis.Mr. [Ricky] Wong already contacted me over a year ago, but at the time, my contract with TVB was not up yet.”

This past year, CTI has already started filming on 8 series, with half of them already completed and in post-production stage, as well as 3 variety / specialty shows already under wraps.In addition to showing clips from the filming of these 8 series + 3 variety shows from this year at the Sales Presentation, CTI will also be introducing a few of the series that will commence filming in 2013, including the series starring ‘heavyweights’ Ha Yu, Paw Hee Ching, Felix Wong; a kung fu series starring veteran martial artist Yuen Wah (元華); a detective series about a guide dog, etc. [TN:See below Weibo post for more info].

Indirectly ‘pressuring’ the government?

By holding its Sales Presentation in December, it’s obvious that CTI is trying to draw attention away from TVB’s Anniversary Awards ceremony to take place on December 17th, however CTI’s deputy director Cheng Jing Man denied this, stating:“We’re just starting up [in the TV industry]-- our goal is to give HK television audiences more choices.We’re not looking to be compared with others.”Asked if they are also taking the opportunity to exert ‘pressure’ on the government to issue their free TV license, Ms. Cheng responded:“The government has been stalling for too long – we just want them to see how much preparation CTI has already done with the number of series and variety programs that have already been filmed.”

In related news, former TVB ‘green leaf’ artist Peter Pang (彭冠中), who recently joined CTI, accepted an interview with Wong He’s radio program yesterday during which he admitted that due to CTI not receiving their license yet, he is unsure at the moment what his future will look like.

.****.

Additional Sales Preso info from CTI’s Weibo:

CTI's Sales Presentation for 2013 will take place on December 4, 2012. The Sales Preso will include clips from the series that have already been filmed (the 8 series that have already been announced) as well as information on the series that will be filmed in the coming year, including: 1) Ha Yu, Paw Hee Ching, and Felix Wong's new series 歲月樓情, 2) Yuen Wah's new kung fu series, 3) a detective series about a guide dog (aka a dog that leads blind people), 4) a forensics-themed series that promises a more 'modern' way of looking at autopsies, and 5) a sneak peak at Noelle Leung's new series "TM" (a series about a newspaper reporter).